Jenny Oliver - The Great Allotment Proposal

Welcome to Cherry Pie Island – once you step on to the island, you’ll never want to leave!

Socialite Emily Hunter-Brown has just bought the old manor house on Cherry Pie Island – and her friends think she’s gone mad! Still, they should have known that wild-child Emily will try anything once…even settling down!

But when Emily discovers she has an allotment to take care of as well as the crumbling mansion, she’s unexpectedly flummoxed! It’s all very well knowing that you have to swap your high heels for Hunter wellies….but it’s quite another actually getting dirt underneath her Chanel Rouge Noir polished nails?

And what is she supposed to do with her bumper crop of courgettes anyway?!

Also by Jenny Oliver

The Parisian Christmas Bake Off

The Vintage Summer Wedding

The Little Christmas Kitchen

The Grand Reopening of Dandelion Cafe

The Vintage Ice Cream Van Road Trip

The Great Allotment Proposal

Cherry Pie Island

Jenny Oliver

JENNY OLIVER

wrote her first book on holiday when she was ten years old. Illustrated with cut-out supermodels from her sister’s Vogue , it was an epic, sweeping love story not so loosely based on Dynasty .

Since then Jenny has gone on to get an English degree and a job in publishing that’s taught her what it takes to write a novel (without the help of the supermodels). Follow her on Twitter @JenOliverBooks

Contents

Cover

Blurb Welcome to Cherry Pie Island – once you step on to the island, you’ll never want to leave! Socialite Emily Hunter-Brown has just bought the old manor house on Cherry Pie Island – and her friends think she’s gone mad! Still, they should have known that wild-child Emily will try anything once…even settling down! But when Emily discovers she has an allotment to take care of as well as the crumbling mansion, she’s unexpectedly flummoxed! It’s all very well knowing that you have to swap your high heels for Hunter wellies….but it’s quite another actually getting dirt underneath her Chanel Rouge Noir polished nails? And what is she supposed to do with her bumper crop of courgettes anyway?!

Title Page The Great Allotment Proposal Cherry Pie Island Jenny Oliver

Author Bio JENNY OLIVER wrote her first book on holiday when she was ten years old. Illustrated with cut-out supermodels from her sister’s Vogue , it was an epic, sweeping love story not so loosely based on Dynasty . Since then Jenny has gone on to get an English degree and a job in publishing that’s taught her what it takes to write a novel (without the help of the supermodels). Follow her on Twitter @JenOliverBooks

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Extract

Endpages

Copyright

Chapter One

‘That’s it!’ Emily stood up, both hands raised in an enough-is-enough gesture. ‘This interview is done.’

‘Emily, Emily, sorry, I apologise. It’s just this is what our readers want. I won’t mention Giles again. Sit down, please.’ Faye Starkey, the journalist from Deluxe magazine, had half stood up, reaching towards Emily with a calming outstretched hand.

Emily was tired. She’d never walked out of an interview before. But this was the last one of the day. She’d coped with the pile-up of questions about the birth of her ex-fiancé Giles Fox’s third baby, she’d smiled when they’d brought up his recent proposal to Adeline Cooper as he’d accepted his Oscar, she’d laughed off questions about her eternal single status, her broodiness – especially since her brother had recently announced that he and his girlfriend were expecting, her poorly judged flings, her short-lived blue hair, her mother’s remarriage, but then Faye Starkey had leant forward and said, ‘Now, about this house you’ve just bought. Cherry Pie Island, isn’t it? That’s quite a departure for you, Emily. I’m wondering what’s going on.’

Emily had pushed her hair away from her face. The air conditioning in the hotel was broken and sweat was starting to bead on her forehead, outside a helicopter was waiting on the lush grass to take her to an awards ceremony in Cannes. ‘Nothing’s going on, Faye.’

Faye had leant back in her seat, crossed her legs, taken a sip of water. Emily’s water had run out and the jug on the table was empty. ‘I just think, the recent hair changes, the launch of the new signature scent – Cherry Blossom, isn’t it? – hugely nostalgic, Giles having more and more babies, buying up some great house with far too many bedrooms for a single woman with no expectation of children … Emily, it smacks of a mid-life crisis. However you try and dress it up. I can’t imagine how must it feel; the press have you earmarked as being desperate for marriage and a baby so no eligible man will come within a mile! Surely this house, thrown into the mix, will have them running for the hills. I feel for you, I really do. If we’re completely honest, you’re romantically doomed.’

That’s when Emily had stood up to leave. At the mention of the house something inside of her had snapped. It was the best thing that had happened to her in years and somehow they’d already snaked their way inside and put their grubby little stamp on it. ‘Faye.’ Emily turned back and rested her hand on the back of the sofa. ‘This is over. I’m not answering anything else.’

‘Oh come on! What happened to the Emily Hunter-Brown that we all know and love? Just give me a little soundbite, tell me who you’re shagging and your plans to wreak havoc in the countryside and I can flip the whole focus of the piece.’

Emily ran her tongue along her top lip, watched Faye with her chewed Biro hovering over her notepad.

Just give her what she wants and she’ll go away.

But something made this time different. Something held the quip back about blazing a trail through the sleepy little island. Something Emily couldn’t quite pinpoint, but she knew there was only one answer. ‘Sorry, Faye, that’s private.’

Chapter Two

‘I can only apologise, Ms Hunter-Brown, it’s a hold up on the other end. It’s nothing to do with us,’ the estate agent stammered down the phone.

Emily pulled a face at Angus the removals man who was leaning against his van door having a cigarette and opening a Lilt.

Emily hadn’t had a Lilt for about twenty years. In this glaring sun it looked tantalisingly tempting.

‘You want this?’ Angus said, holding up the can as he saw her staring at it.

‘Really?’ she mouthed as the estate agent wittered on about how he didn’t see them completing till about two o’clock. ‘Thank you,’ she whispered as she took the can and reached up to give Angus a peck on the cheek, making his chubby cheeks blush.

‘OK, fine, fine, fine, darling – stop, it’s fine – just ring me when it’s done and we can go in,’ Emily said hanging up the phone and taking a sip of the ice-cold Lilt.

‘How do you do that?’ her friend Annie asked as she stood up from where she’d been sunbathing on a patch of grass outside Montmorency Manor.

‘What?’

‘That – get people to give you things.’

Emily made a face. ‘I don’t know. They just do. Want some?’ she asked, handing the Lilt to Annie who shook her head.